Andrew's Space

The End of an Era Part II

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 13:27:07 GMT

I just read Mike's entry entitled 'The End of an Era'. I do mourn Mike's loss of his Cobra but I know eventually he'll have that dream car. All is not lost, he gave up his dream car for other dreams, perhaps more important. In any case, I too, am giving up my sports car (again). This time it was of my own volition instead of being forced upon me by a woman. Women like sports cars when you first meet you but eventually it gets in the way in their natural desire to want babies... But I digress. I've decided to turn in my Z4 convertible for dare I say it - Something more practical. I'm going back to an automatic 3-series sedan to help me deal with the stop and go traffic of South Florida. I admit my sacrifice is not near as big as Mike's and what I am losing in power, I'm gaining in tech gadgets. I just went ordered it yesterday so pictures are forthcoming.

2006 BMW 330i sedan (4 door)
Exterior: Titanium Silver Metallic
Interior: Gray w/Dakota Leather Upholstery with wood trim (Poplar Natural Wood)
STEPTRONIC Automatic Transmission
Premium Package - power seats with memory and lots of other goodies

- Bluetooth integrated into the stereo. When you get a call, caller id flashes on the radio display and you answer by hitting the phone button. No need to dig your cell phone out of your pocket - very cool
Comfort Access (keyless access to opening car doors and starting the engine - also very cool)

Sirius Satellite radio

Hurricane Wilma

Sat, 29 Oct 2005 16:01:21 GMT

I am writing this entry from Barnes and Noble in Boca Raton, just north of where I live in Deerfield Beach. My place has been out of power since 6am when Wilma roared into South Florida. I had no radio, no tv, no electricity during the storm so I had no idea how hard hit we were going to be. I had internet access over my phone but it did not provide detailed local information. The second half of the hurricane was quite ferocious, knocking over my grill on my porch even though that area is heavily sheltered by neighboring buildings. Jasmin and I ran out to the porch, unhooking the propane tank first, then we carried the grill inside. I had planned on moving the grill to the garage as I did before every previous hurricane but I thought I had enough time in the morning. It seems that I'm not alone in underestimating this hurricane.

After the hurricane, we took a walk around the neighborhood to check out the damage and it was definitely the most severe of all of the hurricanes so far. There were downed trees on cars, buildings and hanging from power lines. We saw many rigid structures such as rought iron fences bent. It has been nearly a week without power but thankfully the weather has been gorgeous and the area is slowly coming back online. Lines for gas stations are getting smaller, stores are opening, and it is almost back to life as usual. Jas and I retreated for a couple of days to Plant City to stay in my late grandmother's vacant house. That is, until the mall opened and Jasmin was called to duty. That's retail for you. My work buildings are closed because they have no power and will likely not open until mid to late next week. I've heard that the parking lot is a total mess and there is no room to park due to the debris.

At least we were able to buy some basic supplies to make life easier without electricity while we were up in Plant City. I now have a battery operated B&W television/radio, lots of 'D' batteries, a camping lantern that lights up an entire room at night, and a car electrical adapter so I can charge my cell phone and laptop. Now I'm prepared for the next one as well ;-)

(See hurricane photos in the photo album)

Snorkeling at Peanut Island

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 01:25:06 GMT

Edin is visiting for a little while since New Orleans isn't the most inhabitable place in recent weeks. We decided to venture up to Peanut Island in W. Palm Beach this afternoon to do some snorkeling. The water was fairly clear at first and I got a chance to use my underwater camera casing for my digital camera. With the visibility so low, I had to get really closefor a clear picture. I think a few of them came out pretty good. Too bad I didn't get a full shot of the enormous barracuda that scared the crap out of us! Check out the photos in the Peanut Island album... enjoy

Norris Lake

Sat, 24 Sep 2005 04:26:15 GMT

Last week, the gang got together again for the 3rd annual Norris Lake trip in Tennessee. I'm proud that my buddy Mike finally learned to water ski! Kelly also learned but she looked like she was an old pro the first time out. I had a lot more success on the water as well. I popped straight up on the wake board and began tearing it up. Well, it would be more accurate to say that I was able to not fall for several minutes. I even one handed it and crossed the wake the second day of trying. Hopefully I can learn to get some air like Brett soon. It was great seeing Jess, Erin, Sonja, Mike, Kelly and Will (We see Angie and Brett all the time). Since I'm pretty sure only this group reads this blog, I don't really need to introduce them. Anyway, the weather was so amazing, about 84 the whole week and warm water too without all the freaking humidity Florida has. I think Jasmin had a lot of fun hanging out with Kelly complaining about how difficult us men are... yeah right. There wasn't a lot of drinking except for one night... All I will say is, Jasmin and Angie found out how warm the lake water was that evening;-) All in all, it was a good time and the pictures show how much we all had fun. I really hope we can do some kind of trip next year no matter where we all are across the country! Check out the photos in the Norris Lake 2005 album :-)

Z4 hit again

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 23:50:05 GMT

Some dumbass backed into me at the grocery store... not motivated to talk about it right now.

Google Talk

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 13:18:19 GMT

Like my friend Mike, I downloaded Google Talk as well to try it out. Initially, I didn't like it. It certainly lacked the advanced features of yahoo and msn messenger. It even lacks basic features such as changing the font characteristics.

Google Talk does have some simple, unique features as well. If you are having multiple conversations, it groups them as one window. All of the convos are stacked and when you click on one convo it collapses the others. It also has message notifications when your chat window does not have focus. This is similar to msn messenger when the first incoming IM from a buddy popus up from the tray. Instead, every IM pops up as long as your IM window does not have focus. In the end I found this feature extremely annoying and turned it off.

Good or bad, if you have gmail and are using the gmail notifier program, then you might as well replace it with google talk.

9 ball

Tue, 23 Aug 2005 16:41:43 GMT

Today I ran the table on one game of nine ball. I haven't had much to brag about in pool lately, Brett is up six games for the month and I've been sucking hard core. However, today I ran the table, hitting all nine balls in without relinquishing my turn. First, I hit 2 in on the break then ran the rest until i sunk the nine for an easy straight in shot at the end.

Talking about Only 30% Weird

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 17:29:05 GMT

My friend Mike is 30% weird.... I am 40%.. booyah.

You Are 40% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird... But too damn weird to do anything about it!

How Weird Are You?

Quote

Only 30% Weird

I think some people would say that I'm more than 30% weird.

You Are 30% Weird

Not enough to scare other people... But sometimes you scare yourself.

How Weird Are You?

Old photo

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 03:06:17 GMT

Jasmin and I were looking at old photos since I've been using my desktop PC. Anyway, we found this one to be especially funny and incriminating. I'll take it down if Brett or Angie take offense :-(

MSN Toolbar Review

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 15:11:29 GMT

Mike told me to download the MSN Toolbar like a month ago. Anyway, I finally installed it and it is very awesome. I know, I know, I hate having lots of toolbars. However, this is not just a toolbar. Here's the low down on the features I have used and what I like or dislike about them.

http://toolbar.msn.com

Feature: Tabbed browsing
Stolen From: Mozilla's Firefox
I haven't used Firefox but Microsoft's version is a pain. Tabbed browsing allows you to keep one browser window open but have multiple tabs for different links that you have open. This prevents clutter in your task bar. However, on MSN's you have to click a link in the toolbar to say that you want links to open a new tab or not. It subsequently reverts back to the original setting where it does not open a new tab if you click a link. I would prefer it if it always opened a new tab. Furthermore it would be nice if 'shift-clicking' a link opened a new tab. Instead, it still opens a new browser window. Is it so difficult to have this as a configuration setting?

Feature: Form Fill
Stolen From: Google Toolbar
Google's Toolbar comes with an 'AutoFill' feature. When clicked, this will supply your name, address, etc. to a web page. This speeds up registering on sites like http://www.overstock.com (the best retail site on the web). However, Microsoft takes this and goes one step further. You can store multiple profiles like home and office address. Google let's you store an alternate address but it is difficult to switch between them. Microsft adds a temporary drop down when it identifies a form that lets you select Home, Office, or any other configured addresses. Not only does it password protect credit card info, it also lets you password protect your address info if you feel like being 'extra' secure.

Feature: Desktop Search
Stolen From: Google Toolbar
Google's desktop search is bad ass. Lightning quick and local results show up in normal google searches as well. However, I think MSFT's desktop search is much better, the search results screen is perfect. None of the following features can be found in Google's Desktop search. You can search Outlook E-mail (my prayers have been answered). There is a star system to guide you on how likely the search result matches what you are looking for. It also has a preview pane, very useful. Each result has a nifty icon identifying the type of result. You can search email, email attachments, or documents on your computer.

Breaking and Entering

Mon, 20 Jun 2005 14:19:38 GMT

Some asshole broke into our place Friday afternoon. They stole my laptop and some of Jas's jewelry. Technically they didn't 'break' in since we left the door unlocked on accident. I hope the bastards turn on the laptop and connect it to the internet because then I might have a chance of getting the IP. The laptop was old and wasn't worth anything but the data is somewhat valuable.

In any case, I ordered a brand new laptop to replace the stolen one so that is exciting!Since it is mostly my geek friends that read my space, I'll list the specs for perusal:

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_6000?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

Dell Inspiron 6000
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 730 (1.60 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Windows XP Pro
15.4 inch UltraSharp WUXGA LCD Panel (widescreen)
512MB Shared DDR2 SDRAM 1 Dimm
80GB Hard Drive
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability
128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY™ RADEON X300 PCI Express x16 Graphics
9-cell Lithium Ion Battery (80 WHr)
Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth Internal
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless

Key West

Tue, 10 May 2005 01:43:56 GMT

I spent the weekend in Key West with Jasmin and Edin. It was cool to see Edin, haven't seen him in a year. Jas and I plan on visiting New Orleans to visit before he skips town. I had the opportunity to snorkel in Key West, it was extremely cool. Other than that we just ate a lot of seafood and did a lot of sunbathing. Edin also managed to fit in a couple of interviews in Miami during his trip. I uploaded some pics of Jasmin's birthday party and the trip to Key West. Enjoy :-)

Fun weekend in W. Palm

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 03:27:46 GMT

This past weekend was pretty fun. Jas and I went down to Las Olas with her friend Jessica from work. Jessica was meeting a guy that asked her out from class (FAU) so we joined her so it would be a little less awkward. For some reason we went to the Mango room which was super lame because the crowd was a little older than we are.

Saturday, we went up to W. Palm for some dinner at the Orig. Steakhouse and watched Amityville Horror. Holy crap that movie was good and very scary. Two thumbs up for Van Wilder in a horror movie ;-) Afterwards, we met up with Jessica again at some club named Reservoir... a little ghetto if you ask me. A fight broke out at some point and Jessica's ID, credit card, and phone were stolen from the VIP area :-(

GMAT

Mon, 11 Apr 2005 15:10:38 GMT

Took the GMAT on Saturday thinking I would get about an average score. When I took the practice tests I scored around a 530 which is pretty crappy. I took it and I thought I did okay, ended up getting a 680 which is pretty sweet. It's no 700+ score but it is competetive at the top schools when combined with my undergrad gpa and work experience. So, I guess i will apply in the fall and start in fall of '06 if I get in to a good school. I really hope to get into Stanford. Wish me luck.

In other news, I've been doing some Java stuff at work. Wouldnt you know, one of the reasons I left my last company was because they were moving to Java ;-) Well it's a mix of Java/C++/C# so I'm not crying. Plus im the lead and have three people on my team so that's really cool too. I'm actually being challenged now but it's still not too tough. At least I know my brain still works.

Z4 is fixed

Sat, 05 Mar 2005 22:05:08 GMT

My Z4 is officially fixed. The antenna was replaced today (finally) free of charge. Took some pics after I washed it :-) Temperature was 77 this afternoon, clear skies, very sunny.... So basically the best weather you can imagine.

Lunch at the Beach

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 23:41:05 GMT

Brett and I went down to Ft. Lauderdale beach to have lunch at Max's Grille :-) Hi of 78 sounded like a good excuse for a long lunch. On the way back saw a Ferrari 360... bad ass.

Z4 Hit and Run

Thu, 20 Jan 2005 22:50:03 GMT

Some asshole hit my Z4 while I was eating at Panera today. If I witnessed it I would beat him with my shoe.

First Blog ever

Fri, 14 Jan 2005 15:47:19 GMT

My name is Andrew Roberts and I have been a geek for many many years... I am guilty of reading blogs from gaming developers such as the great John Carmack of Id Software and reading extensive away messages on AIM. Although I can't promise entries as interesting as 3d gaming and amateur rocketry, I will fill you in on every day life in South Florida while the rest of you freeze up in Ohio or wherever god forsaken place you have decided to live. Thanks to my buddy Mike for showing me MSN spaces, this is a sweet setup. He has a space too!

Mike's Space: http://spaces.msn.com/members/buckeye01

Photo Album: 2006 BMW 330i

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 02:22:38 GMT

2006 BMW 330i

330i July 2006 003

330i July 2006 005

330i July 2006 006

330i July 2006 007

330i July 2006 008

Photo Album: Hard Rock July 2006

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 02:21:23 GMT

Hard Rock July 2006

Hard Rock July 2006 001

Hard Rock July 2006 003

Hard Rock July 2006 004

Hard Rock July 2006 005

Hard Rock July 2006 006

Hard Rock July 2006 007

Hard Rock July 2006 008

Hard Rock July 2006 009

Hard Rock July 2006 010

Photo Album: June 2006 Ohio Visit

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 02:17:09 GMT

June 2006 Ohio Visit

Ohio Trip June 2006 001

Ohio Trip June 2006 002

Ohio Trip June 2006 004

Ohio Trip June 2006 007

Ohio Trip June 2006 008

Ohio Trip June 2006 009

Ohio Trip June 2006 010

Ohio Trip June 2006 011

Ohio Trip June 2006 012

Photo Album: Citrix Christmas Party 2005

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 17:30:05 GMT

Citrix Christmas Party 2005

Brett and Angie lookin' good

Andrew and Jasmin pimping it up

20's Pro dancers

Photo Album: Hurricane Wilma

Sat, 29 Oct 2005 16:06:09 GMT

Hurricane Wilma

Hurricane Wilma 2005 001

Hurricane Wilma 2005 002

Hurricane Wilma 2005 003

Hurricane Wilma 2005 004

Hurricane Wilma 2005 005

Hurricane Wilma 2005 006

Hurricane Wilma 2005 007

Hurricane Wilma 2005 008

Hurricane Wilma 2005 009

Hurricane Wilma 2005 010

More Photos...

Photo Album: Peanut Island

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 01:13:53 GMT

Peanut Island

Snorkeling at Peanut Island - Sept 24 '05 011

Snorkeling at Peanut Island - Sept 24 '05 012

Snorkeling at Peanut Island - Sept 24 '05 021

Snorkeling at Peanut Island - Sept 24 '05 030

Snorkeling at Peanut Island - Sept 24 '05 033

Snorkeling at Peanut Island - Sept 24 '05 056

Snorkeling at Peanut Island - Sept 24 '05 060

This is the head of the biggest barracuda I've seen snorkeling

Snorkeling at Peanut Island - Sept 24 '05 081

Snorkeling at Peanut Island - Sept 24 '05 082

More Photos...

Photo Album: Norris Lake 2005

Sat, 24 Sep 2005 04:24:51 GMT

Norris Lake 2005

Group Photo

Kelly came up with a great idea

Brett grabbing some air

this really didnt hurt that much

I think I can

I can! Now it's time to show off

Okay, this hurt

throwing up the horns but not feeling it

this hurt so bad... will somehow stayed on his tube after this

More Photos...

Photo Album: Jas's B-day May 5

Thu, 12 May 2005 18:17:22 GMT

Jas's B-day May 5

jas 26th birthday 001

jas 26th birthday 002

jas 26th birthday 003

jas 26th birthday 004

jas 26th birthday 005

jas 26th birthday 006

jas 26th birthday 007

jas 26th birthday 008

jas 26th birthday 010

jas 26th birthday 012

Photo Album: Key West May 2005

Tue, 10 May 2005 01:36:06 GMT

Key West May 2005

Andrew and Jas on South Beach

Edin posing on South Beach

Andrew and Edin 90 miles from Cuba

One sea sick bosnian

Andrew in Scuba Gear

Andrew feeling whipped after Scuba

Hustling pool

Jas and Andrew shooting pool

Photo Album: April 16 in W. Palm

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 03:27:47 GMT

April 16 in W. Palm

Jas and Andrew

Girls that drank too much

Jessica and Jas

Jas gussied up for a night out

Custom List: Friends with spaces

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 18:43:11 GMT

Friends with spaces